~ Sorry this took aes to get up. My muse seemed to die on me. I also had the urge draw tons of pictures, most of them of Doug. And this chapter doesn't feel as good, I don't know why. Still, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for all the favourites and reviews. ~

Chapter 6: All Good Things come to an End

Doug groaned and sat up. The last thing he could remember was being sucked into the neurotoxin tube. He had landed on a catwalk that led to a set of stairs. Groaning, he sat up. His back felt lighter, as if something was missing. He gasped. Something was missing.

His companion cube had gone.

Stunned, Doug sat completely still for a minute, trying to accept the fact it wasn't there. When he finally regained his speech, he began screaming profanities at the ceiling, shaking his fist to the bitter unfairness of fate. GLaDOS seemed determined to take away everything he had, form his freedom to his sanity and now his cube.

He paused for breath after five solid minutes of shouting. His eyes snapped open when another voice reached his ears. GLaDOS was saying something. Doug scrambled weakly up the stairs. They led to the corridor outside of the huge chamber the evil AI was kept in. The observation room had been ripped off, but the glass walkway was still standing, albeit covered in debris. Doug managed to shove his way through some of it, but he couldn't move a broken panel arm (he suspected it wasn't broken at all, just lying there to stop him).

As he gave up in disgust, he noticed something stuck under a pile of rubble. He tugged it out to discover it was a key card, bearing his name. Doug stared at it. He'd forgotten he had a key card. He wasn't even sure what it was for. Probably for opening doors. But that wasn't useful here.

Doug began rummaging through the rubble, looking for more things. He found a can of beans, a bird skeleton, a pair of broken glasses, and a piece of paper with a weird symbol drawn in orange. It looked a bit like the letter A, but it didn't have the middle line. A string of numbers was written underneath, along with the words Trust Me. Doug pocketed the paper. It felt important, but he wasn't sure why.

A yell made him jump. It had come from GLaDOS' chamber, but it sounded like Wheatley. Doug hoped the little core wasn't in trouble. GLaDOS suddenly started frantically protesting, before letting out a scream that made Doug's blood run cold.

He sat down next to the panel so here could hear the conversation better. Wheatley had given a cry of triumph, and seemed to be celebrating something. Doug could hear the creaking of a lift as it was summoned to the room. Wheatley was still gloating, and he began to laugh. The laugh seemed to get darker, and Doug froze as he heard the lift stop moving. He had to know what was going on.

He managed to crawl under the panel, before vaulting over a pile of rusty metal and swerving round a broken High Energy Pellet Launcher. His fingers reached for the door, but it was closed. He scrabbled in his pockets and drew out his key card. After clearing away cobwebs and dead flies, he managed to slot it into the door mechanism. With a protesting moan, the door slid open.

Doug stepped forward, only to be met by panels. GLaDOS obviously didn't want anything to get in. He could just about peer though into the room. Chell was in the lift, looking incredibly worried. Wheatley was… no. He can't be. Doug rubbed his eyes and looked again. Wheatley really was stuck to GLaDOS' body. He seemed annoyed, and suddenly moved his 'head' close to Chell. GLaDOS' head was nowhere to be seen. Doug wasn't sure if this was good or bad.

There was a sudden ding! and a robotic arm appeared out of the floor. It was holding what looked like a potato. Doug couldn't hear clearly what Wheatley was saying, but suddenly a light on the potato lit up, and GLaDOS' voice came drifting out of it.

GLaDOS was a potato.

Doug watched, horrified, and Wheatley grew angry and slammed the Potato-GLaDOS into the lift. The once-friendly blue core was not shouting in rage, using the robotic arm to punch the lift into the hole. It suddenly gave way, and the lift, Potato-GLaDOS, and Chell, fell into blackness.

Doug left out a cry of shock. Chell was gone. Who knew if she would even survive? His gasp must have been loud, for Wheatley turned in his direction. "Who's there?" he called suspiciously. The panels obediently moved to reveal the crazy scientist. If Wheatley had a face, he would be grinning evilly.

The same claw that had caught Chell snaked down from the ceiling and grabbed the back of Doug's lab coat. The arm dragged him up to Wheatley's eye level. The blue core glared at him. "So," he began, "we were eavesdropping, were we?" Doug didn't bother to reply. Wheatley blinked then carried on.

"So here is the mad man with the box. You helped me, now I will help you." A lift appeared out of the floor. "You will be a good little lab rat, and solve tests for me. You're too much trouble to leave on your own." Doug glared at him. "How am I trouble? I'm a mad man with a box WITHOUT A BOX!" he yelled, struggling.

Wheatley chuckled. "Oh, don't struggle," he warned. Several panels opened up, and something tumbled into the room. Doug gasped. A heart was painted on the side. "Cube!" he yelled. Wheatley shook him to shut him up, before positioning a metal plate over the companion cube.

"Now, Ratt, are we going to co-operate?"